AN: Remember when I said something about drama kicking in? I was joking, so you can calm down and put away the pitchforks now :P.
Also, I forgot to tell you last time that the picture of Elphaba's wedding dress is on my blog. Queenofcliffies dot blogspot dot nl.
Almost forgot - virtual Christmas dinner for GreenForGood for being the 100th reviewer! :)
8.
"If he dies or goes missing," Galinda said thoughtfully, "does that mean the wedding is off?"
Nessarose was horrified. "Galinda!"
"What?" the blonde said defensively. "I was just wondering."
"You can't say such things!"
"Why not? I don't like him." Galinda crossed her arms defiantly. "I just don't want Elphie to be stuck with him for the rest of her life, that's all."
"I honestly think he's getting better," Cyara said, but Galinda dismissed the princess with a shake of her head.
"Not good enough."
Queen Danna swept into the room, her skirts rustling, and all four girls present immediately turned to face her.
"Has he been found?" Nessarose asked anxiously, but the queen shook her head.
"Not yet," she said. She looked more worried than any of the girls had ever seen her. "The search parties are still out looking for him."
"Stupid Fiyero," Cyara said, but they could tell that she was worried as well. "This is so typically him."
"Maybe he ran away so that he wouldn't have to marry Elphie?" Galinda suggested.
Cyara grimaced. "As idiotic as that would be, I could actually see him doing that," she admitted. "He often acts before he thinks." She looked confused. "But I really thought he and Elphaba were getting along better…"
"I thought so, too," said Elphaba softly, turning back to the window to look out over the roads. She'd been standing there for half an hour already, hoping to catch a glimpse of the search parties returning with Fiyero; but all she'd seen so far was snow.
"I don't think that's it," Danna said, lightly running a hand over her daughter's light blonde hair. "Maybe he has gotten lost."
"He knows this area better than anyone," Cyara pointed out. "He couldn't get lost if he wanted to. What if something bad happened to him, Mum?"
Danna just opened her mouth to reply when Elphaba suddenly spoke up from the window.
"They found him!"
Danna rushed to the window to see for herself and then immediately hurried out of the room and down the stairs. Cyara hesitated for a moment, but did not follow her mother.
"Let's stay here," she said. "We'll hear what happened soon enough."
They only had to wait for a short while before there was a lot of commotion in the hallway. Cyara slipped out of the room to see what was going on and when she returned, she reported, "He couldn't see anything because of the snow, so his horse stepped into a hole in the ground, Fiyero fell off and hurt his leg, and he couldn't get back onto his horse again, so he's been lying out in the snow for hours before he was found. The idiot."
Nessarose shook her head. "That was hardly his fault, was it?"
"He's just an idiot in general." Cyara rolled her eyes. "Apparently he'll be fine, though."
It was a while later that Kevon finally came into the room, shaking his head when he saw four faces turning in his direction.
"He dislocated his knee," he said. "Humberto and Danna are frantic, because the doctor is not entirely sure whether or not he will be able to walk normally again in time for the wedding. He's going to need to take it easy these next couple of weeks."
"But he will be alright?" Elphaba asked and Kevon nodded with a reassuring smile.
"He will be perfectly fine," he said. "You can see him, if you want to."
Cyara left to see him immediately. Galinda declined the offer with a huff and Nessarose decided to stay as well, thinking it was not her place to visit the prince.
Elphaba didn't go, either; but that night, when she was padding through the hallway after putting Nessa to bed, she hesitated before going to her own room. Fiyero was her fiancé and, she supposed, her friend. She should go see him.
Fiyero was dozing when she came in, but he sat up the moment he opened his eyes and saw her. He was paler than usual, but otherwise, he seemed to be doing alright.
"Hey," he said. "I didn't think you'd come."
"I didn't feel entirely comfortable visiting you with all those other people here," she admitted. "Your family, the doctor, and the staff were all constantly running in and out. But we're engaged. It would be weird if I didn't come."
He raised an eyebrow. "That's the reason you came?"
She bit her lip, then shook her head. He noticed that she was wearing her hair loose, which he had never seen on her before – even those times in the hot springs, she'd kept it braided, or at the very least in a ponytail. This looked much prettier on her.
"No," she said softly. "That's not why I came. I just…" She sighed. "I guess I was worried about you."
He gave her a lopsided grin. "Really?"
"Don't look so smug about it." She shrugged. "Well, yes. I mean, you helped me when I got caught in that snow storm the other day, and after that… we sort of became friends, didn't we? And everyone was worried when you didn't come back – not just me. We thought something happened to you."
He grimaced. "And you were right."
She approached the bed cautiously, nodding towards the blankets. "How's your knee?"
"All wrapped up," he said. "It was dislocated, so the doctor had to push it back into the right position, and then he bandaged it up tightly. I have to keep my leg propped up on some pillows for the next few days. After that I can slowly start trying to walk again, but everyone is freaking out because they're scared I will be hobbling towards the altar on the first day of the new year."
Elphaba chuckled. "I think it will be fine."
"Me, too." He scooted over a little and patted the bed next to him. "Will you stay for a while? You have no idea how boring it is, lying here all by yourself."
"You poor baby," she teased him, but she did sit down on the edge of his bed. She nodded at the Lurlinemas tree in the corner of the room. "At least you have something to look at."
He laughed. "I requested for some staff members to put it up," he confessed. "I love Lurlinemas. The lights, the presents… just the general feeling in the air. Especially when there's also snow outside. It's my favourite time of the year."
She nodded, picturing Lurlinemas the way he described it. She supposed it would be her favourite time of the year, too, if it were really like that.
"What about you?" he asked, as if he'd read her mind.
She shrugged. "I've never really loved Lurlinemas all that much," she said honestly.
The look on Fiyero's face was priceless. "What?!" he demanded as if she'd just said she flew through the air on a broomstick on a regular basis. "Why?!"
"I used to love it," she said, pulling her legs up underneath her, crossing them. "It used to be like you described, I think – a decorated tree, presents, songs, and laughter…"
He looked confused. "So what changed?" he asked. "And what do you mean, "you think"?"
"I don't really remember." She looked down. "I was only three when my mother died," she said softly. "Lurlinemas – or anything, really – has never been the same after that."
Fiyero was quiet, his heart aching for her. He'd known the governor did not have a wife anymore, but he'd never really thought about it. He didn't know how she'd died, or when; and he hadn't realised until now what it must have meant for Elphaba and Nessarose.
"I'm sorry," he said sincerely and she smiled at him.
"It's okay," she said. "It was a long time ago."
He hesitantly reached for her hand, taking it in his. He could tell she was surprised by the gesture, but she didn't pull away as he squeezed it.
"What happened?" he asked her. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but…"
"She died in childbirth with Nessa," she said candidly. "I don't remember much about her, to be honest – and Nessa, of course, doesn't remember anything about her at all. I'm the only mother she's ever known."
He didn't know what to say.
"What about your father?" he finally managed.
Instantly, he could see a certain kind of sadness dawning on her.
"He…" She faltered, unsure of what to say. "I think… her death hit him hard," she said eventually. "Like I said, I don't remember much about Mother… I remember even less about Father back when she was still alive. I do know he loved her very much. Maybe he changed because of her death… maybe he always was the way he is now. I can't say. It doesn't really matter, either." She shook her head. "I think it's why he so dotes on Nessa, though. To him, she is like a piece of Mother he can hold on to."
Fiyero frowned. "But what about you?"
She let out a short, mirthless laugh. "Me? I am only a reminder to him of why she died, Fiyero. A green, unnatural, embarrassing, and horrible reminder."
He looked horrified at that. "What do you mean?"
She shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it. How does your knee feel?"
He kept on looking at her. She avoided his gaze.
"Fae…" he said.
She blinked. "What?"
"Oh." He looked a little embarrassed. "I, um… I wanted to give you a nickname, now that we're… um… friends, I guess… and "Fae" got stuck in my head," he admitted. "I can change it if you hate it…"
"No." She shook her head. "I like it."
"Okay. Good." He smiled. "And my knee is fine, thank you for asking. Will you tell me about your father now?"
She shook her head again and hopped off the bed. "I'm going back to my room."
"Hey, wait!" He reached out to try and take her hand, but she was already out of his reach. "I'm sorry. I won't mention it again. Please don't go."
"It's late, Yero." She gave him a small smile that told him he was forgiven. "I'm going to get some sleep and you should, too. I'll be back in the morning."
He sighed, deflating. "Alright."
She chuckled. "Goodnight." With that, she slipped out of the door.
She did return in the morning, as promised, and she'd brought some books with her.
"I figured I might as well find a way to entertain you while you're stuck in bed," she said, crawling on the bed next to him again and leaning against the headboard. "I wasn't sure what you'd like, so I brought some different things from the library. Here I have a classic piece of Ozian literature…"
He wrinkled his nose.
"Or a book about the customs and traditions in the Vinkus…"
"I live in the Vinkus," he pointed out to her. "I don't think there's anything in that book I haven't already been told during my long, long history lessons as a child."
She laughed. "Alright then, I'll keep that one for myself." She put it on the nightstand, but he stopped her.
"I'll read it with you, if you want," he offered. "I could tell you some more things about everything that's in there."
Her face lit up. "Really? That'd be great," she said honestly. She shivered and stood. "But first I'm going to light a fire. It's freezing in here."
"I could call a servant –"
"Don't be ridiculous. I know how to light a fire." She piled up some thin logs and lit them, blowing gently before adding a few thicker pieces of wood. Within a few minutes, she had a nice fire going and she sat back on the bed next to Fiyero.
She started reading out loud, but he interrupted her when he noticed that she was still shivering. "Do you want a blanket?"
She hesitated.
He rolled his eyes. "You just escaped pneumonia a few days ago," he said. "Our parents will never forgive you if you end up in bed before our wedding day just because you were too stubborn to admit that you're cold. Here." He pulled one of the blankets from his bed and tried to wrap it around her. "I have three of them, anyway."
"Thank you," she said, a little reluctantly. He grinned at her and let her read on.
At some point, Fiyero's mother came to check up on him. She faltered when she saw Elphaba sitting on the bed.
"She's keeping me company," Fiyero explained, pointing at the book. "We're just reading. I was bored."
Queen Danna could not help but sigh. "You are always bored, Fiyero."
He chuckled. "Yeah…"
In reality, though, Danna was a little stunned. Ever since Fiyero had started his difficult stage, she didn't think she had ever voluntarily seen him pick up a book again. Of course, he could just be so horribly bored that he broke his own rule; but somehow, she didn't think it was that.
She looked at him, taking it all in – the expression on his face and the gestures he made as he explained some Vinkun tradition to his bride-to-be. She also looked at Elphaba, the way she looked at Fiyero in interest, asking questions every now and then, and the way she'd sometimes glance at him when she thought he wasn't looking. Danna quietly left the room and returned to the parlour, where her husband and Kevon were both reading the newspaper with a cup of coffee within reach.
Humberto looked up when she entered. "How is she?"
Danna shook her head. "I think," she said slowly and incredulously, lowering herself into a chair, "I think that our son and our future daughter-in-law are actually falling in love."
Humberto looked surprised and Danna could not quite believe it, either. Kevon, however, just smiled to himself and kept reading his newspaper.
Merry Christmas to you all!